Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Julien Robson is Director of Great Meadows Foundation, Director of the Mary and Al Shands Art Preserve and Curator of the collection of Brook Smith. He also works as a project-based Independent Curator/Consultant. He is a board member of IKT International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art. He is based in Louisville, Kentucky in the USA. After gaining administrational and curatorial experience in the Regional Arts Association and Independent Gallery sectors in Britain, during the 1990s Robson worked with commercial galleries in Vienna, Austria. He has held positions as Curator of Contemporary Art at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, and at PAFA in Philadelphia. He has also taught at University of California Santa Barbara and at the University of Louisville. From 2012 until 2023 he was the curator of the Shands Collection and since 2012 has been curator of the Brook Smith collection, both in Louisville Kentucky. From 2015 through 2023 Robson was the Director of INhouse Foundation and in 2016 was appointed Director of Great Meadows Foundation. www.greatmeadowsfoundation.org. As of 2021 he is also Director of the Mary and Al Shands Art Preserve. He is currently a member of the board of IKT International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art.
IKT is the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art. It is a members organisation that brings together curators from across the world, to meet, share knowledge, exchange ideas and broaden their professional networks. IKT represents the professional interests of contemporary curators worldwide.
Selected recent projects: 2024 ROUNDING THE CIRCLE: THE LEGACY OF MARY AND AL SHANDS Author and editor. 224 page book about the art collection and art legacy of Mary and Al Shands. (Great Meadows Foundation Louisville, 2024) Essays by Peter Morrin, John Yau and Natalie Weis. 2023 ROUNDING THE CIRCLE: THE MARY & AL SHANDS COLLECTION Curator, Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY. 2023 OUT OF JOINT: Joan Tanner Co-curator (with James Glisson), Santa Barbara Museum of Art. 2021 FLAW: Joan Tanner Curator. Site specific installation, CAC Cincinnati, OH. 2017-2022 donottellmewhereibelong: Joan Tanner Curator. Circulating exhibition of drawings and small sculptures. 2021- Director, Mary & Al Shands Art Preserve 2016- Founding Director, Great Meadows Foundation. A resource for developing critical discourse among Kentucky artists. www.greatmeadowsfoundation.org 2012-2023 Curator, Shands Collection, Louisville, KY. 2015 ME, MYSELF and I Louis Zoellar Bickett, Julius Deutschbauer, Jemima Staehli. Curator, Galerie Eugen Lendl, Graz, Austria. 2015 LOUIS ZOELLAR BICKETT Curator, Zephyr Gallery, Louisville, KY. 2014 45 YEARS APPALSHOP A curated series of films from the archive of Appalshop. 2014 GREAT MEADOWS: THE MAKING OF HERE Author and editor. 216 page book about the house and contemporary art collection of Al and Mary Shands in Louisville, KY. (Hatje Cantz Ostfeldern, 2014). Contributions by Kulapat Yantrasast, Maya Lin, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Petah Coyne, John Yau, Glenn Adamson, et al. 2013 JUVENILE IN JUSTICE Exhibition curator: Photographer Richard Ross and ceramicist Roberto Lugo at Crane Arts, Philadelphia. Exhibition engaging the debate around juvenile incarceration in the USA and the role creative education can play in reform. Included activist and educational programs. 2012 MEL CHIN: IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK Guest Curator, Galerie Steinek, Vienna, Austria. “Curated_By 2012" festival.
Great Meadows Foundation aims to enrich and benefit the regional arts environment by empowering Kentucky artists and visual arts professionals to research, connect, and participate in the contemporary art discussion. It provides professional development travel grants to artists and curators to engage with art nationally and globally. As of January 2025 it has provided over $1.3m in support to professionals in Kentucky. www.greatmeadowsfoundation.org
The mission of INhouse is to enrich our community by supporting creativity and imagination on both a local and international level, and to bring exciting new cultural ideas to life.
With the passing of Al Shands in 2021, the collection was bequeathed to museums in Kentucky, including Speed Art Museum, KMAC Contemporary Art Museum, The Kentucky Museum at WKU, Georgetown College, Capital City Museum in Frankfort, Owensboro Museum of Fine Art. & large sculptures were bequeathed to Great Meadows Foundation and now constitute the Mary and Al Shands Art Preserve in Cretwood, Kentucky.